Railway-spike



(No Model.)

0. R. NEHER.

RAILWAY SPIKE.

No. 557,692. Patented Apr. 7, 1896.

WITNESSES l INVENTOR Am uw zvwzw ANDREW E GRAHAMPXO'IQUTHD WASHINGTON nc UNITED STATES CLARENCE R. NEHER, OF ROCHESTER, NEIV YORK.

RAI LWAY-S PIKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,692, dated April 7, 1896. Application filed June 17, 1895. Serial No, 553,115. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE R. NEHER, a resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Spikes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to spikes for securing rails to the wooden ties of railroads.

Heretofore the body of railway-spikes has commonly been made approximately square in cross-section. In some cases they have been provided with a body having its greatest width transverse to the length of the head. I have discovered that such forms of the spikebody necessitate the cutting of so much wood and the displacement of so many wood fibers that the spike-holding power of the tie is seriously impaired, and also that these prior forms do not secure the greatest strength in the direction required of a given weight of metal, and also that they fail to insure the practically maximum friction or holdingpower of the wood upon the spike, though they involve the necessity for more powerful blows in driving, whereby they are liable to injury.

My invention has for its object to increase the efficient strength of spikes without increasing their weight, and also coincident with this advantage to provide a spike that can be more easily driven and is less liable to be drawn, bent, or broken than prior forms.

The invention consists in the construction hereinafter particularly described and pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a section of a railway rail and tie including a side elevation of an improved and of a common spike. Fig. 2 is a front elevation partly broken away. Fig; 3 is a plan, Fig. i is a rear elevation, Fig. 5 is a bottom plan, and Fig. 6 is a partial side elevation, of one form of point.

The head of the improved spike is on its upper side slightly rounded both lengthwise head are cut away to leave cheeks 4 to provide for the use of a claw in drawing the spike without the necessity of adzing the wood. The overhanging part of the head receives the thrust of the rail-flange when any force is applied to the rail tending to tilt it transversely, and in practice spikes heretofore used are liable under a strain of this kind to break at the junction of the head with the body at the inner part of said junction. By the present construction the spike-head has its greatest width at the point of danger, as shown in Fig. 3, and the upper part of the body has its greatest thickness in the same region, as shown in Fig. 4:, whereby the spike is speciallystrengthened where it is subjected to the greatest strain. The opposite end of the head is made narrow and the closely-adjacent part of the body is thin, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3, less strength being there needed. The spike is also thereby adapted to fit the ordinary claw with exactness. The particular construction thus set forth also facilitates making the spike from flat bars and forming the heads by bending one end of blanks edgewise and upsetting the same. IVith such the head on its under side inclines upwardly from its point of union with the body, having its widest and thickest part at 3. A width of about an inch and one-eighth and a depth of thickness of about threefourths of an inch will be suitable. It is narrowed at both front and rear. The inner end of the overhanging part may have horizontal and vertical dimensions approximately of three-fourths and one-fourth of an inch, respectively. The opposite end may have a width and thickness of about three-eighths sion can be inserted between the wood fibers and two-eighths of an inch, respectively. These relative dimensions may be varied to some extent.

The body of the spike is made relatively quite thin in the direction of the width of the head, having a diameter or width in the direction of the length of the head several times greater than its thickness. A thickness of three-sixteenths of an inch and a width of about nin e-eighths of an inch will be suitable, though these dimensions and their ratio may be somewhat varied; but it is essential that the body he made relatively quite thin in the direction of the width of the head.

The body cannot be made much thicker than stated without involving the breaking or cutting of too many wood fibers when the spike is driven into a tie to secure the best results. A spike having the form and dimensions above set forth will break comparatively few fibers, the effect of driving it being to bend said fibers sidewise and simply displace them. Such as are bent aside but not cut or broken have a resilient bearing on the side of the spike-body and a holding action which is much more effective than that of a mass of broken and mutilated wood.

It is a further advantage of the improved spike that its strength is increased in the direction of the greatest strains to which it is ordinarily subjected in use. It is obvious that any strain caused by the sidewise tipping of a rail and the consequent lifting of the spike exerted at one side thereof tends to bend or break the spike in a direction transverse to the length of the rail, and it is one of the objects of the present improvement to secure the greatest practicable strength in this direction with a given amount of metal.

It is further obvious that the spike made thin widthwise of its head and wider lengthwise of the head, so that its narrow dimenwithont serious mutilation thereof, can be driven with less force than required by railway-spikes now in general use, the fiber be ing torn less and less displaced laterally, and this results in a condition of the fibers most eifective to retain the spike in place.

I do not broadly claim a flat nail as of my invention.

My improvement is characterized by the combination, in a railway-spike, of an elongated head and a fiat body substantially such and relatively arranged as stated. XVith such construction is also combined a point which by its form is adapted to avoid excessive mutilation of the wood and also to avoid splitting. F Sucha point is indicated in Fig. 6. The edges of the spike-body are beveled, substantially as shown at 5 and 6, to form a point, which is preferably at one side of the central line of the body and on the same side thereof as the above-described head portion 2 and approximately in a longitudinal plane passing through the widest portion 3 of the head.

By the above described construction of head and point the latter is situated iinm ediately under the center of that portion of the head which receives the blows of the sledge or hammer. The longer bevel on the outer side tends to crowd the spike against the rail until it is fully entered in the wood.

In some cases a point such as represented in drawings may be employed.

7 denotes short bevels, one on each side of the body near its foot, and 8 denotes parts outside of the bevels, intended to obviate any splitting action. The chisel edge produced by the bevels 7 facilitates the entry of the spike, and the beveled shoulders 8 are adapted to crowd apart the fibers partially separated by said edge, whereby a path sufficiently wide between the fibers is provided for the spikebody.

I am aware that flat and pointed nails have been used and also that spikes with oblate heads and wedge-shaped points have been proposed, as in British Patent No. 7,789 of 1893, and I do not broadly claim such device. My improvement combines a thin body with a head and neck widened immediately over the inner edge of the body at the base of the overhanging part, where the spike in use is subjected to the greatest strain, such widened part of the head being near its longitudinal center and between it and the inner face of the head and directly over the inner edge of the spike. This enlargement is at the point of greatest strain, and, further, it facilitates the making of the spike out of bar-iron by upsetting its end edgewise, and, still further, this widened part, situated within rather than without the longitudinal center of the head and over the inner edge of the body, receives the force of the sledge, which tends to prevent driving the spike under the rail. These features of construction are combined with a point beveled in manner and direction to obviate splitting and to cut as few fibers as practicable. Further, the spike is made relatively stronger at the junction of its head and body adjacent the rail-flange and on its opposite edge fitted to receive a claw, the whole being of a form to be conveniently upset from a flat bar, all as hereinbefore specified.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is A railway-spike provided with a point beveled to avoid splitting and with a wide head and with a body of uniform thickness having a width in the direction of the length of its head several times greater than that of its thickness, said head overhanging the body at one edge thereof to fit an ordinary railroadrail foot, its widest part being situated at its junction with the inner edge of the body near the origin of the overhanging part, the beveled neck joining the head and body being also relatively thick at such point, said neck and head being made thinner toward the outer edge of the body, all substantially as set forth, whereby cutting of fiber is decreased and splitting avoided and whereby the strength of the spike is increased at the point of greatest strain and whereby also the opposite edge is fitted to a claw and the Whole adapted to be driven outside the Vertical planes of the rail and whereby further it is adapted to be conveniently made by upsetting bar-iron edgewise.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CLARENCE R. NEHER. Vitnesses 'I. CAFFERY, R. WRIGHT. 

